Mechanism for producing speed indi



Dec. 22, 1953 c M TUTTLE- ET AL 2 663,611

9 MECHANISM FOR PRODUCING SPEED INDICATING MARKINGS ON THE EDGES OF RAPIDLY MOVING FILM Original Filed March 1, 1946 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 1,41 i ".i r41 112 E z b C FIG .2

15 14 9 o o 0 o 0 CLIFTON M. TU TTLE KO 0 EDGAR ONEIL INVENTORS ATTORNEYS Bee. 22, 1953 c. M. TUTTLE ET AL 2,663,611 MECHANISM FOR PRODUCING SPEED INDICATING MARKINGS ON. THE EDGES OF RAPIDLY MOVING FILM Original Filed March 1, 1946 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 CLIFTON M. TUTTLE EDGAR OWEIL INVENTORS r1 TTORNE YS Dec. 22, 1953 c, M. TUTTLE ET AL 2,663,611

MECHANISM FOR PRODUCING SPEED INDICATING MARKINGS ON THE EDGES OF RAPIDLY MOVING FILM Original Filed March 1, 1946 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 FIG.5

FIG. 4.

CLIFTON M. TUTTLE EDGAR ONEIL INVENTORS A TTORNE YS 1953 c. M. TUTTLE ET AL 2,663,611

MECHANISM FOR PRODUCING SPEED INDICATING MARKING-S G FILM ON THE EDGES OF RAPIDLY MOVIN Original Filed March 1, 1946 5 Sheets-Sheet 4 ff zzl BY ATTORNEYS FIG. 7.

Bee. 22, 1953 M. TUTTLE ET AL 2,663,611

MECHANISM FOR PRODUCING SPEED INDICATING MARKINGS ON THE EDGES OF RAPIDLY MOVING FILM Original Filed March 1, 1946 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 E FIGJB. 11 A CLIFTON M. TUTTLE EDGAR O'NEIL INVENTORS o lmezfl 07/ BY M75 ATTORNEYS Patented Dec. 22, 1953 MECHANISM FOR PRODUCING SPEED INDI- CATING MARKINGS ON THE EDGES OF RAPIDLY MOVING FILM Clifton M. Tuttle and Edgar ONeil, Rochester, N. Y., assignors to Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, N. Y., a corporation of New Jersey Original application March 1, 1946, Serial No. 651,232, now Patent No. 2,604,376, dated July 22, 1952. Divided and this application January 3, 1952, Serial No. 265,781

5 Claims.

trace may be obtained on a film. A still further object of our invention is to provide a camera of the class described in which the pitch of the spiral trace can be adjusted for the particular type of work at hand. A still further object of our invention is to provide a trace on a film in which there are also impressed markings by which the fluctuations in the trace can readily be counted and thus, the number and speed of the oscillations of the trace can be obtained. Other objects will appear from the following specification, the novel features being particularly pointed out in the claims at the end thereof.

In high-speed recording cameras, such as are used for oscillographs, cameras are known in which film is wrapped around a drum to be exposed for recording a trace, or record. Such cameras may have lenses for producing an image on the film wrapped around a drum, but, so far as we are aware, no cameras have been designed which are capable of obtaining excessively high speed and which are capable of making either a single trace, or a spiral trace, on a film wrapped around the drum through relative movement between a camera objective and drum.

This application is a division of our copending application Serial No. 651,232, filed March 1, 1946 for High-Speed Oscillograph Camera now Patent No. 2,604,376, July 22, 1952.

In order to indicate what may be accomplished by our invention, we might point out that in the preferred embodiment of our invention, shown in the drawings, we are able to provide a mechanism for moving film at variable rates and in which film may be moved at a speed of 2000 inches per second, which means, of course, that the film is moving at a rate of 10,000 feet per minute. Such a speed may be obtained with a drum circumference of 105.24 inches and a drum speed of about 19 revolutions per second. It is, of course, necessary to have the drum very carefully balanced and the parts carefully made for such high speeds. We provide a mechanism by which the drum may be gradually brought up to the required speed before the objective is released to move across the film to make a trace thereon. With our apparatus, it has been possible to make a clearly-defined trace of oscillations of as high as 1,000,000 per second. Obviously, other and perhaps still higher speeds might be obtained utilizing our invention by building a camera of other dimensions. However, in order to get the maximum definition, we have to carefully correlate the lens, the image screen, and the location of the film, and we have, by way of example, used a known type of f/ 1.6 lens of 50.9 mm. focal length, the long conjugate by distance from the front glass surface to the center of the oscillograph screen being 109 mm. and the short conjugate (lens to film) 43.3 mm. The lens was adjusted for best performance at these conjugates and for blue light from the screen. By selecting the proper focal length and angle for the objective axis, and by selecting the proper drum size, the curved image trace may be made to lie so close to the theoretical photo plane of the objective that a clear, sharp, and well-defined image of the trace may be formed on the film. We have described somewhat in detail the specifications of the more essential parts of our preferred form of camera, by way of illustration, and to give a picture of what we have been able to accomplish with such a machine, but we, nevertheless, do not wish to be restricted in any way by this illustration, as it is obvious that cameras can readily be constructed with different dimensions from those given above.

Coming now to the drawings wherein like reference characters denote like parts throughout:

Fig. l is a top plan view of the apparatus;

Fig. 2 is a front elevation projected from Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a side elevation on a larger scale showing the drum mounting and the film control means;

Fig. 4. is a vertical section on line 4-4 of Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is a fragmentary elevation in section on line 5-5 in Fig. 4;

Fig. 6 is a vertical section through the turret; Fig. 7 is a front view of the turret and its release latch;

Fig. 8 is a section of a film strip illustrating its appearance after exposure and development; Fig. 9 is a plan-section of the timing lamps;

Fig. 10 is a partial front elevation of the lens turret and associated parts;

Fig. 11 is a side view of part of Fig. 10, showing certain electrical elements;

Fig. 12 is a front view thereof, and

Fig. 13 is a detail of the turret contacts.

Referring first to Figs. 1 and 2, a base or table I is provided to support the components of the apparatus, and at one end thereof is a rectangular casing i l enclosing the drum aforementioned, here designated generally by numeral i2. At the opposite end of the table is a suitable support [3, which may be leveled by adjusting studs 54-. An oscillograph or receiver l5, may be carried by the support I 3 having a hood orenclosure l6 surrounding a cathode tube i! with its fluorescent surface 3 directed toward the drum l2 and aligned with the vertical central plane of the latter.

The cathode tube I? is coaxial with a center support stud 19 on which is mounted a. part 20 designated as the turret. This is a disk having gear teeth 2| mating with a second gear 22 of the same diameter as the turret gear, and is driven by a motor 23 through a suitable reduc tion gearing 24 and chain 25. We prefer to provide pairs of gears to replace gears 29 and 22 having different ratios so that the speed of movement of the objective carrying member shown here as 2!] can be altered to procure different relationships with the speed of the film. in the drum 12. A one-tooth ratchet 28, Fig. '7, on the shaft 28- is normally held against rotation by a pawl 21', pivoted at 29 on a stand (it. A rod iii attached tothe pawl 2! has a terminal roller 32 in contact with a cam 33 which may be shifted by a release lever 34. When the latter is depressed, cam 33 is raised against the action of a spring 35 and the resultant thrust disengages pawl 21 from the tooth of ratchet 26. A clutch 36, Fig. 5, which slips during the time when the ratchet is held by the pawl, is thus permitted to drive the gear 22 and through it the turret 29. The lever 3-! is released immediately after being depressed, so

' that the spring 35 may return theparts to normal and thereby enable another spring 3'? to press the pawl 21 into position to stop the gear 22., and likewise the turret 26, after one full revolution.

The turret 26 has a photographic objective 38 of suitable charateristics mounted near its periphery and extending through it at an angle to the stud l9. This angle is such that the optical 'axis of the objective is always directed at the to be projected onto a film wrapped around the drum, as will be hereinafter more fully described. During the time the mechanism above described completes one cycle and again comes to rest, the

objective 38 sweeps a beam of light across the full width of drum i2. During such a sweep the drum may revolve from one to twenty times, in accordancewith the speed control thereof, so that the beam focused on the surface of the drum will describe a helical path of greater or less pitch and length around the periphery of the drum.

It has been found that for close control and steady speed a hydraulic drive for the drum is preferable to an electric motor or other power I source.

To this end, the shaft ti! of' the drum, Fig. l, suitably supported in bearings 4i within the casing l i is coupled to a fluid-operated motor 42, connected by tubing 4'3, 44 to a suitable motordriven variable-displacement pump, not shown in detail, but indicated at 45 in Fig. 1. Requisite controls for the pump fluid, whereby the pressure of the latter may be established at any required maximum, are indicated at 46 and 41. Thesecontrols, also not shown in detail, preferably include the necessary relief valves and by-passes, checkvalves and ports as required for producing a means for turning the drum at a uniform speed as well as providing for a uniform steady acceleration and deceleration of the drum. The fluid drive forms no part of our invention and may be of any standard make.

As previously stated, the record of an indication or signal on the luminous surface it of the oscillograph is transmitted by the objective 3% to the surface of the. drum 1 2, around which is wrapped a strip of photographic material, preferably a highly supersensitive film. The manner of inserting and placing the film to receive an image is as follows:

The casing N (Fig. 4) has an access door 56 above the shaft ii and the drum 52 also has an access door 5!, which will be aligned with door 50 when a hand wheel 52 on shaft so is turned by the operator until an arrow (Fig. 2) on'the wheel registers with a fixed index mark The door 5! is normally held closed by a spring latch 55 (Fig. 4) which may be reached for disengagement by pushing a small spring-pressed shutter 56 (Fig. 3) inwardly. With the door 5! open (Fig. 3), a pair of spindles 5'! and 53 mounted on the rear wall of the drum are exposed to view. The operator then places a full spool 52 on spindle 5'? and draws the leader strip upwardly and out of the drum between a pair of guide rollers 51. He then rotates the drum counterclockwise by means of the handwheel 52, holding the end of the leader in his right hand. When the drum has made a full revolution the rollers 6| are again on top as in Fig. 3, and the operator passes the leader down- 'wardly between them and attaches its end to an empty spool 59 on spindle E8. The paper leader now encircles the drum but may not lie tightly against the periphery or rim surface Ma, and the film, if drawn around the rim, may also be wavy and out of the focal plane of objective 35. The record on the film, under such a condition, would be blurred and useless. It is necessary, therefore, to take up this slack, and means for so doing will be presently described.

The operator now closes doors 5! and 5%. These doors are made light-tight in any conventional manner, as by a flange-and-channel construction indicated in Fig. 4. When the doors are closed, the operator turns the drum a half revolution, until the arrow 53 on handwheel 52 registers exactly with the lower index mark E la (Fig. 2). At this point the center of spool spindle 58 (Fig. 4) is aligned with a short shaft 53, mounted to slide in bearings 64 in the front of casing H. The shaft 63, Fig. 4, has a keyed inner end 55, adapted, when the shaft is pushed inwardly, to engage a slot in the front end of spindle 53 on whichthe empty spool 62 is mounted. It should be noted that the spools 59 and 62 are both so constructed that they are keyed to turn with their respective mounting spindles.

As the shaft 63 is pushed in and engaged with the spindle as aforesaid, a bevel gear 5? (Fig. 4) simultaneously meshes into a mating gear 68 on a horizontal shaft 69. As the operator turns a crank 70, motion is transmitted through a second set of gears ii and a vertical shaft ?2 (Fig. 3) to a counter or footage indicator :3 mounted on the top of casing ll. Therefore, as the shaft 553 is turned, the leader paper is drawn around the drum, the spindle 5? being free to rotate, as will be more fully explained. When the counter '13 indicates a known" figure, the operator is thereby informed that the paper leader is all wound on spool 59 and the drum is completely encircled with a strip of sensitized film. It now remains to take up the slack as before noted.

The spool 62 has on its rear end (Fig. 3) a ratchet 4, adapted to be engaged by a bell-crank pawl 75. A link it has a slot-and-pin connection at its upper end with an arm of this pawl,

and is pivoted on an eccentric "H at its lower end. When the shaft 63 is engaged with the spindle 58 the shaft 78 on which eccentric I? is mounted is in line with a slidable shaft '59 guided in bearings 88 (Fig. 4) and having a handle 8| outside casing H. When shaft '19 is pushed inwardly against a spring 82 its inner end engages shaft 18 (Fig. 3), and then a half-revolution of shaft 19 will turn the eccentric T7 and cause pawl to engage the ratchet M. Spool B2 is thereby held against rotation and no more film can be unwound therefrom. carefully turns crank it until he feels a reasonable tension or resistance, and thereby knows that all of the slack is taken out of the film encircling the drum, and that the film (the outer side thereof being the emulsion surface) is her; snugly to the drum all around. A ratchet 53 (Fig. 3) on spool 59 is then held by a pawl and thereby maintains the tension of the film.

The operator withdraws shaft 63, and the shaft 19 is disengaged from shaft ?8 by spring $3, I.

and the drum is then in condition to e rotated. The shafts 79, 63 and another stub shaft 53b are locked in the withdrawn position by engagement of a three-armed yoke 85 in suitable grooves, this yoke being mounted on a stud 86 and movable l y a lever 81. A microswitch M is positioned to be closed by the yoke when the latter is in locked position.

In setting up the machine the rate of the sweep of the oscillograph trace is the most easily con trolled of the variable factors. The drum speed may be selected to separate the frequencies and the length of the record may be controlled by the lens movement rate. Of course, the selected factors must be such that enough light must be passed to the film to make a developable trace thereon.

The record is made when the operator momenvtarily depresses handle 34 (Fig. 7), which disengages pawl 21 from the on-tooth ratchet 2C and permits the turret 29 to be driven by motor 23 through one revolution, always at the same speed. The turret 26 actually serves as a shutter, inasmuch as the space between it and the end of the casing H is provided with lightdockingmeans, such as an annular flange 88 (Fig. 6) on 'the turret which enters an annular groove 39 on the casing, and therefore the exposure occurs only as the beam projected through the lens 38 passes through the arcuate slot 39.

So that some definite analysis of the photographed signal indication may be made, a timeelement must be associated with the rotation of the drum in some manner. This has been accomplished by providing close to the rim of the The operator then can 6 small lamps 93 are located 180 degrees apart on the plate and each lamp is in a housing 94. A small aperture 95 in the end of each housing permits a pencil of light to reach the film F near each edge whenever one of a series of apertures 98 in the disk passes said aperture. In the present structure the disk is so designed in relation to the speed of the synchronous motor that approximately 1000 flashes per second will reach each edge of the film. Therefore, these will be recorded on the film as a succession of elongated dots 91, and the space between center of any two successive dots will represent one onethousandth of a second. The developed film may resemble Fig. 8, in which it will be noted that in exposing the film the drum made 5 revolutions during the passage of the objective 3% along slot 39. There are approximately 5 cycles of the trace 98 between the center of adjacent dots 97, indicating that this particular signal had a frequency of 5000 cycles.

The speed of the drum may be indicated on a tachometer scale i if: (Fig. 2) calibrated in inches per second, the pointer on this scale being controlled With the output of current from a small generator ill (Fig. l), driven from shaft 40 by a belt or chain connection I I2.

In order that the flasher lamps 93 may be on for only a short interval which will be less than the time required for one revolution of the drum even at its highest speed, mechanism is provided for closing a circuit through one lamp momentarily and immediately after this circuit is opened, to close the circuit through the other lamp for a similar interval. This arrangement aids in the detection of any change in signal frequency which may have occurred during one rotation of the lens turret. To this end, the turret drive gear 22 (Figs. 11, 12) has a contact plate 99 mounted on an insulating support I09, which is adjustable circumferentially on studs llll. As the gear 22 makes one revolution (with the turret 20) the contact plate wipes first over a pair of brushes H12, thereby closing a circuit through one of the lamps 93, and after the plate has moved off from these brushes it bridges a second pair I03 for a similar time interval to close the circuit through the other lamp.

The motor iii may be controlled by a switch 0 3 on the panel (Fig. 2). This panel for convenience may also carry a switch I03 controlling motor 23, and start-stop buttons i955 for the motor (not shown) driving hydraulic pump 45. Safety indicators ifl'l, controlled by suitable interlocking circuits may also be provided to indicate that the shafts 63, 79 and 55 have been withdrawn and that all doors are closed. As these details are not a part of the invention claimed herein, they are not shown in the drawings and will not be further described.

The safety indicators may be associated with a plurality of micro-switches or similar devices, only one of which, M, (Fig. 3) is shown in the drawings. Micro switches may be operated by shafts 63, 79 and and others by the doors 50 and 5|. All of the switches may be in series and connected with start-stop buttons M8 in such a manner that the drum 12 can not be power driven until all interfering elements have been withdrawn. 7

After one trace has been completed, that is,

. after the turret 20 and objective lens 38 have made one revolution and stopped, the hydraulic controls 108, 109 are operated to bring the drum to rest. Then, Without opening the door 50 again,

a new wrap of film may be wound onto spool 60 when shaft 63 is again pushed in to engage the spindle is, the arrow on wheel 52 of course being first brought to the index mark 54a. It is desirable, before winding this second wrap, to relieve the film tension by means of the eccentric T8 and the link It, the tension being restored by a reverse movement of the eccentric as before.

Ears or flaps 57a and 5811 (Fig, 3) are provided to engage and support the outer ends of spool spindles 57 and 58, and to retain the spools 59 and 62 thereon, and these ears enable an operator to remove a spool. While possible to remove film at any time, it is preferable not to remove only part of a roll as this may upset the dynamic balance. While we avoided using a balance weight to make up for shifting of film from onev spool to the other in some cases this may be desirable.

In Fig. 8 of the drawings a fragmentary section of a typical film is shown on a reduced scale ince we prefer to use a film width of 4 in this particular embodiment of our invention). This film shows a portion of a spiral trace 98 made by our camera and the space between the dots 9? on the extreme edges of the film F indicate of a second elapsed time, so that by counting the oscillations it will be noticed that there are approximately oscillations, or 5,000

oscillations per second took place during this -v particular recording.

As pointed out above in the specification, we have been able te make a record indicating 1,000,000 oscillations per second with the apparatus set for producing its highest speeds.

It will be noticed that by moving the objective through a conical path with respect to its axis of rotation and by having the image to be photographed at the apex of the conical path, a trace may be produced as long as the objective 38 is moving across the slot 39 and when beyond the slot 39 in either direction, the plate H will serve as a fixed-position shutter for preventing the film F from being exposed. By providing a camera casing totally enclosing a drum. which is, in itself, substantially light-tight, we have been able to adequately protect the film, and by providing a door on the drum through which the film may be loaded into the drum, the door extending outwardly at least partially through a door in the camera casing, it is a simple matter to determine when the apparatus is in an open position for threading so that there is but little opportunity for improper operation of the machine. The micro switch circuit, which also prevents improper operation of the machine, does not form a part of our present invention.

We claim:

1. A high-speed camera comprising, in combination, a camera casing, a drum revolvably mounted in the casing, means for stretching a length of film about the drum, a power drive therefor, an objective, a movable carrier for the objective, means for moving the objective across the film carried by the drum whereby a spiral trace may be made thereon of a length greater than the length of the film stretched about the drula speed-film marking mechanism and means for operating the film marking mechanism through only a portion of the drums movement.

2. A high-speed camera comprising, in combination, a camera casing, a drum revolvably mounted in the casing, means for stretching a length of film about the drum, a power drive therefor to move the drum a plurality of revolutions, an objective, a movable carrier for the objective, means for moving the objective across the film whereby a spiral trace may be made thereon of a plurality of times the length of the film stretched about the drum, a speed-marking mechanism and means for automatically limiting the speed-marking mechanism to mark said film during two revolutions of the drum.

3. A high-speed camera comprising, in combination, a camera casing, a drum revolvably mounted in the casing, means for stretching a length of film about the periphery of the drum, a power drive therefor for revolving the drum a plurality of revolutions, an objective, a movable carrier for the objective, means for moving the objective across the film whereby a spiral trace many times the length of the film stretched about the drum may be made thereon, a speed-marking mechanism comprising a lamp and a shutter, and electrically controlled means for igniting the lamp for one revolution only of said drum.

4. A high-speed camera comprising, in combination, a camera casing, a drum revolvably mounted in the casing, means for stretching a length of film about the periphery of the drum, a power drive therefor for rotating the drum a plurality of times, an objective, a movable carrier for the objective, means for moving the objective across the film lying on the drum whereby a spiral trace may be made many times the length of the film stretched about the drum, a speed-marking mechanism comprising a pair of lamps, a shutter between the lamps and the film, motor means for operating the shutter for producing speed indicating markings on the edges of a film and means for igniting each of said lamps for only one of the plurality of revolutions of said drum.

5. A high-speed camera comprising, in combination, a camera casing, a drum revolvably mounted in the casing, means for stretching a length of film about said drum for exposure, a power drive therefor for revolving the drum a plurality of revolutions, an objective, a movable carrier for the objective, means for moving the objective progressively across the film on the drum whereby a spiral trace may be made thereon of many times the length of the film on the drum, a speed-marking mechanism comprising a pair oflamps, a shutter between the lamps and the film, motor means for operating the shutter for producing speed indicating markings on the edges of a film and means for igniting each of said lamps for only one of the plurality of revolutions of said drum, said means igniting one of said lamps for one revolution of said drum and the other of said lamps for the next successive revolution thereof.

CLIFTON M. 'IUTTLE, EDGAR, ONEIL.

References Cited in the file Of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,056,878 Aspinwall et a1. Mar. 25, 1913 1,794,685 Hayman et al Mar. 3, 1931 1,860,740 Hayes May 31, 1932 1,871,380 Legg Aug. 9, 1932 2,257,100 Belock Sept. 30, 1941 2,293,349 Martin et a1. Aug. 18, 1942 

